France: the expertise of the Directorate-General for Armaments on fabric masks

Text by: RFI Follow

Since the deconfinement, tens of millions of masks are necessary to equip the French. Non-sanitary masks, made of fabric, but which must meet certain criteria and filter at least 70% of particles. In the Paris region, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) offers its expertise in one of its laboratories to help companies in their manufacturing process.

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Usually, in these laboratories, engineers test gas masks and other bacteriological, radiological and chemical protective gear for soldiers, but since March 17, they have exclusively tested the masks made for the general public.Fabric. Two-stage tests for which the machines have been adapted, says Raymond Levet, general weapons engineer, starting with a test bench which is called here "the TULIP bench".

"  We are doing two tests, the air permeability which is measured on a machine which will measure the air flow through a sample and then on this famous" TULIP bench "in which we will generate an aerosol and we will send this aerosol to the samples to see the percentage of it that is stopped by the materials.  "

The sample success rate is around 25%, explains Raymond Levet.

Improve your prototype

"  Many industrialists who come to us are textile manufacturers, therefore, they were not necessarily familiar with filtration techniques and therefore they had to find out, their first try was not always the good  ”, continues the engineer.

Then instructs the entrepreneur to improve his prototype and submit it to a new examination. 80 masks are thus tested every day by the engineers and technicians of this laboratory of the DGA, which works at the extreme limit of its capacities.

►Read: Masks, a new essential accessory against the pandemic

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